Pages

Friday, May 19, 2017

Facebook Embraces Censorship with Growing Fervor - Science

Facebook on Thursday launched an assault designed to crack down on clickbait headlines, in a push to banish "fake news" from its news feeds."People tell us they don't like stories that are misleading, sensational or spammy," Facebook stated in a blog post on it site. "That includes clickbait headlines that are designed to get attention and lure visitors into clicking on a link."

When your censorship criterion is 'things people don't like,' how can we possibly assail the nobility of the dream.

Menlo Park-based Facebook noted that in 2016, the social network updated its news feed to reduce stories from sources that consistently post clickbait headlines that withhold and exaggerate information," Facebook said.

- PO

If that were true, the clickbait would include Fox, CNN, etc which routinely omit or exaggerate points of news.

That it would be extremely hard for Facebook to prevent people from abusing its hot new product is not an excuse. It’s a feature of the system that Facebook built. And if the company’s reputation suffers because it can’t find better ways to handle it, that’s no ones fault but its own.

Regarding control of the content on Facebook Live which Facebook has so outrageously neglected.

It would also conflict with the conventional ethos of social media being a way for users to publish anything they wish (even if it may later be removed), which has been a part of the internet since its birth. It would also mean Facebook accepting greater responsibility for the content on its site than it has so far been prepared to acknowledge, making it more like a traditional publisher than a platform. And this could create a whole new set of problems.